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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

One of the most vapid (and yet theoretically
interesting) parts of film culture is the obsession with film stars, or
celebrities.Although it is ridiculous
to expect actors to only play a single part in a single movie, some stars
become so synonymous with a role or a type of role that it shapes the entire
reading of future films.This can often
lead to fascinating performances and can enrich films, but it can also create a
kind of critical conventional wisdom about a film just because of it’s casting
before people have even seen the film.

One of the most high profile actors
working today who is trying to escape their past is definitely little Daniel
Radcliffe.Post-Potter he has purposely
taken difficult and interesting roles with various levels of success to try and
prove himself as an actor.He has
performed on stage as the orphan “Cripple Billy” in an intensely dry play about
Ireland in the 1930s; he has simulated gay sex as Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings; and played an
egomaniacal parody of himself flicking a condom onto the head of Dame Diana
Rigg in Extras.I’m sure he’s been offered a thousand
rom-coms and fantasy films but it seems safe to say that he is trying to prove
himself with slightly more ‘edgy’ roles.

Horns
is going to divide
opinion with its plot and casting before anyone has even seen it.Radcliffe plays Ig Perrish, a pariah in a
small town that has been blamed for the grisly murder of his long-term
girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple).He
wakes up days after the murder with little memory of where he has been and what
he has done, and has two demonic horns growing out of his head.At first people don’t seem to notice these
horns, but instead they are affected by their presence and end up treating Ig
differently (to say the least).

Monday, October 13, 2014

Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell) is a newly recruited British soldier from
Derbyshire who has to leave behind his orphaned younger brother after being
deployed along with his regiment to Belfast at the height of the violence (In
1971, obviously).The first day after he
arrives the troops are briefed about the geographic danger zones in the
republican West of the city, especially around the notorious “IRA stronghold”
of Divis Street council flats, and of the splintering factions between old IRA
and the new, younger Provisional IRA.

On his first morning in the city they
have to go door-to-door in a Catholic neighbourhood in order to find some
illegal weapons, where they come up against strong resistance from the
locals.This quickly gets out of hand leading
to a shocking moment of violence that separates Gary from the rest of the
regiment.After running away from some
young men who are trying to kill him (filmed with an amazing Point-Break style
chase scene through the backstreets), he is alone and terrified and has to
steal some civilian clothes to make it back to the barracks.

After bumping into a young kid who has
powerful family connections, Gary is drawn into a series of escalating violent
betrayals as the night progresses between the older and younger elements of the
IRA, the undercover military and the rest of his regiment…

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Rope,
the story of an egomaniacal
upper class New Yorker and his obedient ‘friend’ who host a macabre dinner
party with a secret chest containing their recently murdered friend as the
centerpiece of the meal, was always my favourite Hitchcock film.It is filmed entirely from one direction in a
large apartment studio set (with a theatrical ‘forth wall’ missing) and in 10
minute long takes with hidden cuts to make the action continuous like in the
theatre.It is a masterpiece of suspense
and captures the inherent tensions and power plays involved in the phenomenon
of ‘dinner parties’.

The debut from writer/director Christopher Presswell happily and
proudly announces its Hitchcockian influences right from the beginning, as
evident from the brilliant Saul Bass title sequence and Hermann-esque score
(recorded no less by the Prague philharmonic…).It also openly references TV show Midsomer
Murders, ‘70s cult film Abigail’s
Party and, of course, the board game Cluedo.

Jack (Andrew Fitch), a smarmy narcissist, is introduced in bed with Vera (Isla Ure), the well-to-do wife of his
best friend Frank(Nigel Thomas).In amongst the discussion of their affair
Jack reminds her about a dinner party that he is throwing that evening for Frank,
their old friend ‘Major Burns’ (Tom
Knight) and Inspector Marcus Evans (Dan
March).Vera gets up to dress and
discovers that she is missing an earing, but leaves Jack in bed.As she leaves we see that Jack has the earing
and is has plans to use it to devastating effect later on at his party…

Monday, October 6, 2014

Should cinema be enjoyable? Does a film need a plot? Can a film make you have an ontological migrane and still classify as good? The latest film from lo-fi auteur Brian Mcguire does not care about any answers...

Window Licker (Or ‘WiNdOw LiCkEr’) tells
the story of Ben Wild as he descends into a hellish madness after planning to
meet up with an old school friend but another person arriving in his
place.Yet even that is too much of a
simple, linear chronology to explain what happens on screen – the film is
basically a manic and paranoid sketch show focusing on Ben’s increasingly
crushing paranoia that could easily give viewers an aneurysm if they lean to
close to the screen…